Crafts update....

because I know you've been waiting with baited breath.

This is the newest craft obsession du jour...

Yes, I made my own knitting needles. The picture is pretty bad, but I started out with a 3/8" dowel, sanded the ends to a nice point, painted it with an acrylic wash and finished it with a few coats of Butcher's Wax. The color doesn't come across in the picture very well, but the shaft is painted chartreuse and the ends are painted indigo. I was very please overall. It only cost me $1.65 to buy the materials and an hour to make them. The points aren't quite tapered enough and the Butcher's Wax leaves a bit of a petroleum smell behind (which has faded), so for my next set I'm going to hunt down a paste bee's wax polish. It was so much fun to make them and to get dirty (paint and wood dust). Besides, who else can say they have chartreuse/indigo knitting needles?

Other projects:

• The bison yarn scarf is coming along nicely. I think I'm going to go another 12 inches or so - that way I can get it to wrap around my neck once and to tie in the front. I'm hoping I have enough left for a little head band/ear cover.


• I'm almost finished the first of a pair of wrist warmers. I'm not very happy with the thumb and am still debating whether I'm going to rip it out or just reinforce it with some duplicate stitching. Once I decide, I can get it's mate started and hopefully done in enough time to actually use them this season.


• I started a poncho using my new needles. After a few false starts, I think I've come up with a pattern I like.


• I ripped out the poncho that I had started back in September. It's a very pretty blue variagated mohair, but it was way too wide and had a few too many mistakes in it for my liking. Besides, that's one less project I have to worry about.


• The way Michael's sweater is going, it may be ready in the next few weeks and hopefully it will still fit him.


• I haven't touched the granny squares for the blanket I'm making to donate to CHOP, but I have a good number of squares done and I can knock them out in no time flat.


• I got the first 3 sizes done on my soaker pattern. Once I get Michael's size done, I'm going to make one up in the yarn I dyed a few weeks ago and see how it fits. I'm hoping this is the one so I can get to work making an inventory and start designing the really fancy ones.

Off to bed...